At the recent all employees meeting, the good news was that the European CEO of New Co assured us that they intended to maintain a presence (office) in Manchester for the long term. Hurray!
But what did he mean by ‘long term’?
In investing terms, it’s probably a minimum of 10 years, more likely 20 or 30 years.
Speak to some people and they think 5 years is long term. If you talk about relationships, one year is long term for certain types!
Anyway, I’m hoping it’s closer to 10 years but we’ll see what happens.
The bad news is that whilst he didn’t actually mention the dreaded ‘r’ words (redundancy and restructuring), he did talk about the introduction of a new way of working, that of ‘work teams’ which would mean people being reshuffled (uh oh, another ‘r’ word!) into these teams. Ultimately, people would have to apply to be a part of these teams so this will more likely affect commercial and operations people in the business, but may also have an impact on my immediate friends and colleagues.
The job I do doesn’t slot into any work team; rather, my role would be to support these teams…I think. One good thing is that in the past month or so, work has filtered through to me from New Co that is not integration-related. Not that I’ve been sitting around twiddling my thumbs – I’ve been kept busy with existing Old Co work.
Meeting “Them”
Anyway, I was invited to HQ to finally meet my New Co colleagues face-to-face.
I was quite relieved to find that they were pleasant, helpful and friendly.
I hope they found me just as pleasant, helpful and friendly. I made a point of remembering people’s names and was introduced to the UK CEO – the little chat we had was worth the 6-hour round trip itself!
The good news was that when I got back to the office the following day, the feedback my boss got was very encouraging and discreet enquiries had been made about my background, experience and work capacity.
So, I’m still optimistic about work, still just keeping my head down and getting on with stuff.
‘Armageddon’ is likely to happen around September or October, when all the IT software, systems etc get migrated over to New Co’s servers.
Whilst the prospect is not worrying me or keeping me awake at nights, it’s kind of curled up at the back of my mind to keep me in touch with reality – I accept that things will not end well for everyone.
That said, it’s still a good place to work at, most people are upbeat, although motivation could be better in some areas. The work I’m doing is still interesting and challenging and there’s still a lot of it so it’s home-time before I know it!
Anyway, it’s been a blur of a week, ending on Friday 13th (lucky for some!) – wishing you all a great weekend!
Glad to hear that work situation is working out. Hopefully by long term they do mean 10 years. 🙂
Supporting other team is OK, just make sure you don’t eventually become “redundant.” 🙂
Thanks Tawcan – 10 years will do me!
And yes, I need to make sure I’m ‘useful’ and not ‘redundant’!
Although not easy, one has to accept that any decent job, currently resides in an everchanging environment. Like my boss used to say; “If you feel like everything is under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”
Hi Berry
I actually prefer working when there’s a bit of ‘fire-fighting’ to be done – although right now, it looks like the fire may go out of control and cause some damage! I agree, decent jobs do have to change – I’ve coped with change before and I will do again. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi weenie,
Thanks for the update! It’s interesting to hear how other peoples work lives are going.
We’ve just gone through an office move and I have to say it is 99% positive so no grumbles from anyone here. Hoping your work story turns out to be a positive one also, sounds like you’ve positioned yourself well as a hardworking and skilled member of the team and the people higher up have noticed that which is all you can do really 🙂
Cheers!
Cheers TFS.
The word on the grapevine is that there’s likely to be an announcement next month, so I hope I’m in the running for the ‘remain’ camp, as opposed to the ‘leave’ camp (work, not Brexit haha 🙂 )
Hi Weenie,
From what you post it sounds positive from them – as others say, always be careful and of course watch your back – dont train them up to take over and have nowhere else for you to go! Its a fine balance!
Fingers crossed, but keep up the good work, hard saving , and of course, enjoy watching your dividend income slowly but steadily keep increasing!
London Rob
Hi Rob
Cheers and yes, always worth keeping a few ‘aces’ up my sleeve!
Looking at the dividend income month on month, it feels like it’s just creeping up at a snail’s pace – I take heart by comparing it with last year to see how far I’ve come!
Thanks for the kind wishes and for stopping by.
Hi Weenie,
I’m glad that the news at work is positive, whatever duration “the long term” turns out to be. As a freelancer in IT I work at a lot of different companies and it’s amazing how common redundancies and restructures are. When I was younger the thought of redundancies happening seemed like a rare thing and a massive shock if they were to happen. Sadly these days it feels like it’s run of the mill and business as usual to make frequent reshuffles and redundancies. That’s part of the reason why I’m comfortable contracting because I don’t really feel that there’s much job security in permanent jobs these days anyway.
Glad things are looking promising for you
Thanks OR.
My job has been ‘at risk’ twice before and I’ve managed to escape the axe. I’m not saying that it gets easier but this time round, I’m not half as anxious or worried as I was the previous times. Perhaps it’s because my finances are in a far better state. Or I’m just mellowing with age haha!